Generally, a boat or a ship is secured to a wharf or dock to a securing device, which is usually a mooring hook assembly, by a mooring cable, having a large eye or loop, running from the ship to the dock, which must be sufficiently tight to prevent excessive movements of the ship with respect to the dock. A messenger line is usually attached to the mooring cable and thrown to the mooring hook assembly. An operator standing on the dock receives and secures the messenger line, and makes sure that the big eye of the mooring cable is engaged into a hook of the mooring hook assembly.
A number of mooring hook assemblies are available in the art to fasten the mooring cable to secure the ship and also to release the mooring cable before the ship sails away from the dock. Mooring hook assemblies generally comprise a main body fixedly mounted on the dock and supporting a hook that may move between an open position and a closed position to secure the mooring cable by engaging the big eye thereof.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,763,815 (Hodate) describes a releasable mooring hook assembly having one end pivotally mounted on an horizontal supporting surface of a dock and another end provided with a hook that can pivot between a first opposition in which a bight thereof is open toward the mounted end and a second position in which the bight is open in the opposite direction, the bight being spaced from a pivot axis of the hook so that a rope held in the hook in the first position tends to turn the hook into its second position.
On the one hand, rapid disengagement of the cable is usually difficult. U.S. Pat. No. 3,811,720 (Epstein) discloses a fastening means for a releasable mooring hook assembly that can be actuated by an operator on the dock to allow the cable to slip away from the fastening means so that the ship may sail away from the dock.
Still, engagement of the ship mooring cable to the mooring hook assembly mounted on the dock generally requires hard labor and may be dangerous since the cable is usually of a large diameter and heavy, even though efforts have been made in the art to provide improved mooring hook assemblies, such as by providing a multi-part rotatable lever to catch the cable (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,761,122 (Epstein) for instance).
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a hawser guidance system that facilitates engagement and disengagement of the mooring cable to and from the hook of a mooring hook assembly, without undue manual intervention, and even in adverse conditions as where wind or waves are present, for example.